Kenner council sets charter change election for November

Kenner voters will decide in November whether to give the City Council the power to ratify more contracts. Currently, the mayor has sole authority to award service contracts, but an amendment to the Kenner Home Rule Charter can change that.

"We are the keepers of the public checkbook," said Councilman Kent Denapolis, who drafted the legislation along with Councilman Joe Stagni. The entire seven-member council submitted the measure.

The election will be Nov. 6.

If voters approve, the council could ratify or reject all contracts worth $100,000 or more. Council members had originally considered lower contract caps, as low as $25,000.

Councilwoman Maria Defrancesch said there was a question over whether the council could do its "due diligence" and analyze every contract if the contract cap was lower. "We needed to come up with a rational number," she said, adding later, "this is a very big responsibility that this council is taking on itself."

Council members stressed that they aren't trying to take power from Mayor Mike Yenni. He didn't speak on the issue at Thursday's meeting.

"One-hundred thousand doesn't tie his hands," Denapolis said, adding that the mayor will still design the contract, set the amount and negotiate it. "This is just engaging the council more."

Stagni said citizens are "dumbfounded" when they hear some large contracts don't come before the council. "This is about transparency," he said. "It takes no power or control from the administration or the executive branch."

Some council members, Denapolis and Stagni included, were upset after learning that Yenni in December renewed the Ramelli Janitorial contract for curbside garbage pickup for five years without seeking competition. Council members are happy with Ramelli's service but said the city might have gotten a lower price if the job was opened to competition.

Yenni has said he signed the extension only after checking with neighboring governments to find that Kenner's price was among the lowest. He said that forgoing Ramelli's bid and seeking competition might have led to a higher price.

Yenni is hardly the first Kenner mayor to upset the council with a contracting decision. Some council members objected that Mayor Louis Congemi in 1999 had extended a sewerage contract until 2015.

Among Kenner's big-ticket professional services contracts, said Denapolis, are that sewerage agreement, the garbage collection contract and the Pontchartrain Center management contract, which is currently up for renewal.

The council unanimously voted to set the election, with Councilwoman Michele Branigan absent.